I've made sweet breads that stay fresh for days. Take a look at my blog on TFL. The hokkaido milk loaf is a very popular soft bread that stays fresh for days-at least in my case it does. My cinnamon swirl bread has shown similar performance.

I store my bread, sliced, in a plastic bread bag at room temp. I always make sure the bag is wrapped snug around the bread. We only eat a few slices for breakfast and so the bread lasts quite long and stays fresh for just as long.

The freshness also depends on the fat content and moisture content in your bread. If your bread has no fat added to it then it will quickly go stale.

NOTE---These ingredients will produce moist tender loaves of breads or rolls that can set on the counter up to 4 to 5 days retaining their moisture. At the same time you are enriching your breads and rolls.

CHIA SEED GEL---Should be stored in the fridge up to a week. Should the Chia seed gel start fermenting, don't throw it out. You can still use it to bake with. Chia seeds are also known to retain moisture and also contains the omega oils that we can't get enough of. Use the Chia gel to enhance your baking & cooking it's a natural flavor enhancer. Chia gel will even enhance the flavor of dull tasteless white breads. Today Chia gel is used to preserve many foods giving them a longer shelf life.

FLAX SEEDS---Also contain the precious omega oils, it too helps in preserving the moisture in breads. When Flax seeds are toasted they add a delicious nutty flavor to our breads and rolls.

UNSWEETENED COCONUT GRANULES---They to help in retaining moisture in breads and their loaded with scads of nutrients to enrich our breads and rolls. Look for (Bob's Red Mill) Coconut granules.

SPECTRUM'S VEGETABLE SHORTENING---It will help in producing the lightest breads & rolls, it too can be used as preservative.

To bake moist, light, tender breads, and to enrich your breads use these four ingredients

NOTE---I also use these ingredients when baking with sourdough breads. Wow! The flavor in my breads are awesome. These ingredients can be added to any basic bread recipes, including sourdough breads, or baking soft breads & cinnamon rolls.

Do you need to adjust the other recipe ingredients when making these additions? Also, when I am making rye bread I use an altus to increase the flavor; would adding some of the chia gel to the altus enhance the rye bread flavor?

the water roux is a very effective method to preserve bread tenderness for several days.... and it's super-cheap, too! I pregelatinize 10% of the flour. In my opinion it's the best performance/price method: zero cost and a lot advantages.

When you say that you pregelatinize 10% of the flour, do you mean that you take 10% of the flour used in recipe and incorporate it in the Chia Gel and then mix back in with the rest of the ingredients? Also, do I need to subtract the amount of water used in the Chia Gel from the water used in the recipe?

I don't use chia gel: I do a much simpler thing. I take 10% of the total flour called for in the recipe, then I dissolve it in 5 times its weight of water (subtracted from the total) and I heat the compound until it begins to gelatinize (I use the microwave because it's quicker, but you can also use the stove). Cooling down the compound becomes firmer (a gel) and at that point you can mix this "water roux" with the remaining ingredients of the recipe. It couldn't be simpler.

Thank you, I will try that also. I'm also trying to incorporate the Chia Seeds for the reported benifits of diabetes. My husband is type II insulin dependent, and he is not about to give up his corned beef & rye sandwiches. I have gone to grinding my own wheat & Rye to adding whatever ingredients I can find that might lower or slow down the g-index. I was reading an article a while back, I thought on this message board, reporting the benifits of Chia Seeds for diabetics.

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